International Court of Justice declines to order end to genocide in Gaza

Posted on January 27, 2024 by obligingworldviewer

International Court of Justice (ICJ) President Joan Donoghue (C) speaks at the ICJ prior to the announcement of an initial ruling in the genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa, in The Hague on January 26, 2024.

Have the very old wise men who had to speak out about the genocide in Gaza not wanted to touch anyone and be careful?

On Friday, very slowly, almost sliding, the very old judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) entered the courtroom to pronounce on the charges that South Africa had ordered., They issued an 86-paragraph written decision on the request for “provisional measures” in the pending case by the government of South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Employing restrained but nevertheless damning language, the judges wrote,

“At least some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the Convention.”

The ICJ failed to show humanity what our attitude should be and what would be allowed when people go fighting with each other. They declined to call for a halt to Israel’s months-long assault against the civilian population of Gaza, merely ordering as “provisional measures” that Israel comply with its existing obligations under international law and submit a report within a month.

As we could have guessed, the Israeli government ignores all those words and continues to rely on self-defence and the need to eradicate the “terrorist movement” Hamas.

Is it possible that the Court their magisters capitulated to political pressures exerted by the imperialist powers?

The ICJ stops well short of the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly itself in December, in which 153 member states out of the 193 voted for a “ceasefire,” with 10 voting against (including the US and Israel) and 23 abstaining (including the UK and Germany).

Instead, the ICJ merely orders that Israel file a “report” in 30 days regarding its implementation of the order.

At this early stage of the proceedings, which were initiated on December 29, the judges are only tasked with determining whether the allegations are “plausible” before issuing interim orders. The case itself is likely to drag on for years before reaching any definitive conclusion.
To that extent, many more Palestinians will have been mercilessly killed. Who knows, maybe the Israeli government and the settlers will have achieved their goal of declaring all of Gaza and the West Bank theirs.

The ICJ’s ruling will rightly be seen as a damning indictment, not only for the Israeli government, but for US-NATO imperialism, which has supplied, financed, justified and defended the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

We realise that oil supplies and relations with the Middle East also play a major role here. As well, the enormous proceeds from arms transfers by the United States and some countries must not be overlooked.

Why should Israel not comply with the general international agreements on warfare? One can regularly see images of how the Israelis kill innocent people against all conventions, even those who surrender with a white flag.

Once again in history we notice that a lot of people do not want to speak out and let it happen. They do not seem to know the saying of Simon Wiesenthal, who said:

‘For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing’

Concerning Ukraine, the invasion by Russia was condemned as a pretext, while now the Hamas attack of October 7 is not seen as a pretext for razing Gaza.

On January 3, for example, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby denounced the case as

“meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”

On Friday, the ICJ decided the precise opposite.

US State Department spokesman Matt Miller, dismissed the allegation of “genocide” with a wave of the hand earlier this month, telling reporters that the US government is

“not seeing any acts that constitute genocide.”

Are they so blind, or are they guided by the right-wing news channel Fox News and the far-right groups that continue to send false reports into the world?
For several years Israel had been brooding on an egg to go to war against the Palestinians. Now it has taken October 7 to finally get her blow at home.

At the end of October 2021 Israel a new command centre for all of Israel’s emergency and rescue forces was created and a weeklong battle exercise was organised.

It is doubtful that Israel is going to

“take all measures within its power”

to prevent crimes that amount to genocide such as

“killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

The South African Parliament has welcomed the “landmark ruling” of the International Court of Justice on the country’s genocide case against Israel and that it determined that

“at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible.”

but I would not call it

“a significant human rights victory”,

like the South African government said, claiming also that

“the ruling vindicates South Africa’s position on an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities in Gaza”.

Listening to Benjamin Netanyahu he seems to have no other intention than to continue his battle to erase Hamas and with it all Palestinians from Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister expressed his anger and called the accusations of genocide outrageous and antisemitic. For him, the court’s willingness to discuss genocide charges was

“a sign of shame that will not be erased for generations”,

and

“We will continue to do what is necessary to defend our country and defend our people,”

” a fundamental right to self-defense.”

He also added:

The court in The Hague is right to reject the outrageous request to deprive us of that right.”

Netanyahu slammed South Africa’s lawsuit against him as ‘outrageous’, after a judge ruled that Israel must prevent genocide.

“The accusations of genocide leveled against Israel are not only false, they are outrageous, and good people everywhere must reject them,”

Netanyahu said

It is now even more important that people all over the world start demanding from their governments that they as an international community respond by applying pressure on Israel to comply with the order,

Preceding